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October is my absolute favorite month. Time to break out the cozy things, ramp up my rituals, make copious amounts of chili and enjoy the playfully spooky energy. When Animal Crossing Pocket Camp announced a Halloween themed event, I was beside myself with excitement (and determination to complete all the tasks for once).

Finally, my campsite feels worth sharing, loving, and spending all my time in. Join me on a tour of the spooky and mysterious Camp Sinderthorne!

At the center of a haunted wood, beyond gnarled trees and occasional bones of poor lost souls, lies a clearing known as Crow’s Hollow. Here, the smell of burnt earth intoxicates the senses, preventing nearly all growth, except for a garden of poisonous lollipoppies and mutant pumpkins. Ruins of an old shrine and mausoleum cast shadows over a small graveyard.

A mischievous witch makes her home in a battered old Airstream trailer among the rubble. She keeps watch over the lost spirits and creatures who wander in and out of camp.

For those brave enough to step into her trailer, she offers tarot readings and her spell-casting services. Positive results, not guaranteed.

She’s been known to raise the dead on full moon nights, lighting incense and casting a circle to welcome them back to Earth. Ghostly and sometimes skeletal spirits of campers lost may appear!

Happy little ghosts often flit around the graveyard, sometimes taking her broomstick for a ride.

She’s always sure to tend to her garden. Jack the Pumpkin King loves lollipoppies and is always pleased with the little witch’s extensive crop.

I SO hope the new core Animal Crossing game will find ways to connect our campsites. I’d love for all this decor to transfer over in some way. Since Pokemon Go connects with Let’s Go, Eevee/Pikachu, it must be possible. Like many fans, I’ve actually spent real-world currency on ACPC and I’d like to see the content lifespan lengthen.

Olberic is your typical soldier/knight with a classic RPG story. He’s strong and easy to play as if you’re somehow new to RPGs. OR if you want to relive the nostalgia of early Final Fantasy games without too much of a struggle.

Like H’aanit, Olberic can fight people for no reason. His Challenge path action is handy for removing NPC from doorways and completing the odd side quest requiring a swift beating. Olberic values honor above all, which is why he’s on a quest to bring an old colleague, Erhardt, to justice for treason against their King.

I quite like how polite and noble Olberic is. He seems the most reasonable and level headed of all the characters. At any moment he could turn this whole caravan around if the others are acting up. Total dad vibes. Predictably, he’s strong and has some incredibly useful moves – like a slash that deals broadsword damage to all enemies at once.

Choose Olberic if:
dads do it for you
you want to play, but don’t want to work for it
you’re all about that noble life
in your dreams, you’re a valiant knight

We’re almost at the end of our journey through the 8 protagonists of Octopath Traveler! Let’s walk with my penultimate character.

Tressa is a merchant from the bustling seaport town of Rippletide. Despite exotic ships and goods pouring through her home and her parents’ shop, she hasn’t gained an ounce of culture. As she journeys out into the world to test her limited skills and fill the pages of her travel journal, she remains naive and irritatingly optimistic.

I’m just going to say it: Tressa is really annoying. She has a high-pitched, whiny voice and I’m pretty sure she’s 12 years old. She’s not particularly strong in battle, but her wind abilities come in handy from time to time. Sometimes when you enter another area of the map, she will find a few thousand coins, but that’s the biggest perk she offers. Her Purchase action is a more ethical version of Therion’s Steal ability, but rarely as lucrative.

Choose Tressa if you:
live for a bargain
have never traveled outside of your hometown
enjoy shopping
crave adventure in the great wide somewhere more than you can tell

Which character will YOU choose?

Monster Hunter has finally come to Nintendo Switch! Before you head out in pursuit of glory, consider the following:

Don’t attack the monster while a team member has mounted it. The mounted player can bring the beast down and allow the full team to RAGE on that bitch. So wait for the monster to fall to maximize your impact.

Eat before you hunt! Eating a hearty meal boosts your stats and adds some useful abilities for the hunt ahead. Sit down to a meal with your team before you rally for a quest.

Watch your health/sharpness and retreat to heal/sharpen as needed. Your whole team only gets three KOs before you fail the quest. Sometimes fatigue can sneak up on you so run to another area for a quick potion or sharpening session. You’ll be back in the battle in no time!

If you haven’t gotten sucked into Octopath Traveler yet, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? With 8 characters to choose from, it can be overwhelming. After all, your main character is the only one you can’t switch out over the course of the journey. Let’s jump into someone else’s shoes.

Sweet, innocent Ophelia was abandoned on the doorstep of the Church of the Order of the Flame and taken in by the Archbishop. She was raised as his own alongside his daughter, Lianna, who is preparing for a ritual and pilgrimage known as the Kindling.

But whoops. Archbishop falls deathly ill and Ophelia starts her sister’s ritual by procuring the spark of the Sacred Flame… so now she has to finish it. So she travels to towns with churches to share the spark and reinvigorate the Sacred Flames on their altars. She spreads peace and calm everywhere she goes.

In battle, she’s surprisingly not weak for a healer, especially if you equip her with a secondary job like Warrior. Her battle cry (“OH, Sacred Light!”) sounds a bit like she’s mid-orgasm, but Her Guide ability is a more pure version of Primrose’s Allure. Ophelia can guide townspeople to complete side quests and summon them in battle to fight alongside her.

I first came to Animal Crossing in Wild World for Nintendo DS. I played constantly through grad school and beyond, becoming an active member of the Animal Crossing Community and hosting WiFi parties. After skipping the Wii, the promise of New Leaf ensured I preordered a first gen 3DS. I upgraded to the 3DS XL when the ACNL edition came out.

Now, Pocket Camp is keeping me mildly entertained on mobile, but I’m craving so much more. While I keep waiting and hoping for an Animal Crossing Switch announcement, I’m dreaming up things I’d love to see in a new game.

Let me have more friends over! Nintendo is clearly capable of allowing more than 4 players to connect at once. So why can’t I have up to 8 players in my town?

My Camper. Let me connect my mobile account and bring my camper into a full version of the game. It would be super cool if there was a multiplayer RV park where 8 or so friends could meet to explore each others’ campers, play minigames, and maybe even race RVs.

Better communication system. For the love of Nook don’t make me type out messages to visitors. How about putting that Nintendo Online Service/ app to use and letting me actually TALK to my visitors.

Goals. I love the goals mechanic in ACPC, and there’s tons of opportunity to apply that to a full Switch version. Show me on the map which villagers need something. Give me a daily fish/fruit/bug quota. Reward me to visiting friends/traveling. Help me earn more bells to pay off my inevitable loan(s).

New museum wing(s) for unique collections. I think there are typically new fossils/bugs/fish added to each game, but PLEASE let me hang my villager portraits in the museum! It will give me more incentive to work for those portraits if I have somewhere I can display them all! Also, a Fashion wing would be really cool. I like to collect certain outfits, but not necessarily wear them so space to showcase them would be great. Plus this would give me a reason to visit my friends’ museums to see what their unique collections are like!

Keep the market box. I’d love to be able to sell some of my items to other players, including furniture and clothes! This would be a great workaround to players agreeing to bring a bunch of bells to your town and swap for an item only to take the items and disconnect or leave without paying.

MORE events! I always look forward to holidays in Animal Crossing and I appreciate when they align to real life events, but I’d love original events and moments. We have SO many ridiculous “national ______ days” in the real world, there have to be more creative ways to party in the next Animal Crossing.

New shops. We have Brewster’s coffee shop, how about a full restaurant where we can go with friends or villagers? It would be great to meet some new NPC animals! While we’re at it, can we keep OK! Motors and the cutie penguin brothers?

What would you want to see in the next Animal Crossing game?

If you haven’t gotten sucked into Octopath Traveler yet, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? With 8 characters to choose from, it can be overwhelming. After all, your main character is the only one you can’t switch out over the course of the journey. Up this week:

Alfyn is a chipper, do-gooder on a mission to find and honor the man who saved his life and inspired him to become an apothecary. Along the way, he encounters moral dilemmas and probably violates his Hippocratic oath. He reminds me a lot of Zell Dincht from FF8 – loud, willful, energetic… and not very bright. I wouldn’t want him to be my doctor.

On the bright side, Alfyn heals everyone for free. Except your party. It costs 4 SP to use his First Aid ability. Once he’s leveled up some that spend isn’t a big deal. Alfyn’s story seems to have the most holes. The biggest being how will he find a man he only saw once as a child without at least knowing his name?

Similar to Cyrus’ Scrutinize ability, Alfyn can Inquire of the townspeople to learn information about them, get discounts or get hints about side quests.

I find him to be one of the more annoying characters, but his altruistic outlook is pretty refreshing and he combines strength with healing. So he’s one of my party staples.